“Not at the moment.  He did yesterday in a letter to me.  You see, he left my house immediately and slept at his club.  Then he went down to The Manor and sent for Jane, who, by the way, knows nothing of what I have explained.  Here are two letters,” added Agnes, taking an envelope out of her pocket.  “One is the forged one, and the other came from Garvington yesterday.  Even though he is not imitating my writing, you can see every now and then the similarity.  Perhaps there is a family resemblance in our caligraphy.”  Her cousin examined the two epistles with a rather scared look, for there was no doubt that things looked black against the head of the family.  However, he did not read Garvington’s letter, but asked Agnes to explain.  “What excuse does he make for forging your name?” asked Lambert in a business-like way, for there was no need to rage over such a worm as Freddy.

“A very weak one,” she replied.  “So weak that I scarcely believe him to be in earnest.  Besides, Freddy always was a liar.  He declares that when he went to see about getting the gypsies turned off the land, he caught sight of Hubert.  He did not speak to him, but learned the truth from Mr. Silver, whom he forced to speak.  Then he wrote the letter and let it purposely fall into Mr. Silver’s hands, and by Mr. Silver it was passed on to Hubert.  Freddy writes that he only wanted to hurt Hubert so that he might be laid up in bed at The Manor.  When he was weak—­Hubert, I mean—­Freddy then intended to get all the money he could out of him.”

“He did not wish to kill Pine, then?”

“No.  And all the evidence goes to show that he only broke Hubert’s arm.”

“That is true,” murmured Lambert thoughtfully, “for the evidence of the other guests and of the servants showed plainly at the inquest that the second shot was fired outside while Garvington was indoors.”

Agnes nodded.  “Yes; it really seems as though Freddy for once in his life is telling the exact truth.”

Her cousin glanced at Garvington’s lengthy letter of explanation.  “Do you really believe that he hoped to manage Pine during the illness?”

“Well,” said Agnes reluctantly, “Freddy has tremendous faith in his powers of persuasion.  Hubert would do nothing more for him since he was such a cormorant for money.  But if Hubert had been laid up with a broken arm, it is just possible that he might have been worried into doing what Freddy wanted, if only to get rid of his importunity.”

“Hum!  It sounds weak.  Garvington certainly winged Pine, so that seems to corroborate the statement in this letter.  He’s such a good shot that he could easily have killed Pine if he wanted to.”

“Then you don’t think that Freddy is responsible for the death?” inquired Agnes with a look of relief.

Lambert appeared worried.  “I think not, dear.  He lured Hubert into his own private trap so as to get him laid up and extort money.  Unfortunately, another person, aware of the trap, waited outside and killed your poor husband.”